My 43rd Favorite Song of All-Time

is:

“Another Pilot” by Hey Rosetta!

The lead track on the debut album by my unquestionable favorite band, “Another Pilot” created another mantra for me to write on the outside of contemplative letters to friends, or in the margins of my notebooks: “Start the engines, I’m dying in the long line.” Read the lyrics, posted below the video, and wait through the whole song, it’s got different stages that need to be experienced:

Crows pitch on the lawn, screeching a song. The inmates wake up and they’re pulled to the bars to pine their regrets and their rusting corvettes and the tragedy they once had a part in. They said “You ruined our lives. You pissed on our prize.” It’s still pulling your knuckles to your palm.

(fucking conscience, you’re siding with the wrong side)

You know the devil’s not deep–no, no, he’s brushing your cheek, and hearing him breathe you remember a song:

just another angel through the clouds and into the ground just another pilot through the clouds and into the ground just another child through the chrome sets out on his own

Birds shit on your car, you’re scraping it off. Do they know who you are? Don’t they know who you are?! They sing “You ruined our lives You pissed on our pride.” Still pulling your knuckles to your tie. You carry on, hunched over your job.

(start the engines i’m dying in the long line)

But you wanna get off and run away from it all…

You plan your escape, at the end of the day, you plan your escape you take what you saved, and you get on a plane, yeah you take what you saved and you start fading away, as you’re turning the page, you start fading away

(just another angel through the clouds and into the ground just another pilot flying down just another devil out of the dirt and back into the earth)

(fucking conscience, you’re siding with the wrong sidestart the engines, i’m dying in the long line)